Comments on: How to ruin your students' weekend in three easy steps

By: rstolins

rstolins — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 23:41:51 +0000

MP4 video is a good way to go that works for most students. If you invest in software like Camtasia, you can upload to a streaming video website, such as Screencast.com, then simply use a link to the lecture. It doesn’t load Blackboard with more content (which may cost your university $$’s) and it’s easier to update the video if necessary. One nice feature of Camtasia is it’s easy to make minor edits, such as omitting a cough, slip of the tongue, or long pause. You can also create a table of contents within the lecture, so students can review specific topics with ease.

As an educator, I find it helpful to jumpstart younger learners (i.e. today’s adolescents) with video introductions and lectures similar to what you describe here. I also include visual previews (thumbnails with annotations) of papers to be submitted with assignment instructions. Video has it’s limitations, but younger learners take to it so readily, I find that I need to sheer in that direction if I’m going to reach them reliably.

Russel Stolins
BA Anthropology, UC Berkeley

By: Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 19:34:55 +0000

Update: Apparently the embedded audio in the PowerPoint slides is proving to be a problem for students without access to the latest version of MS Office. So I picked up some cheap screen casting software which I wanted anyway and created an .mp4 to upload to Blackboard. It wasn’t a perfect solution and it cost an extra $15 and took another two hours but at least I could be watching basketball while I did it. Overall, still very easy.

By: praveenasridhar

praveenasridhar — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 02:25:30 +0000

[edited]

Praveen:

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By: Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 22:15:15 +0000

I have not tried Prezi, but I seriously considered it before making this assignment. Thanks for the rec! I was just trying to get it done as quickly as possible so I could play Ticket to Ride with my wife.

By: Angela K VandenBroek (@akvbroek)

Angela K VandenBroek (@akvbroek) — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 21:05:55 +0000

Have you tried Prezi? As a whiteboard person, you might like the freedom of the presentation platform. 🙂 It also allows you to add voiceovers, embed youtube and flash, and lots of other very nice things. You should check it out. (Also, if you are worried about switching from powerpoint, you can import your slides from powerpoint and then add things around them.)

By: Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 20:23:53 +0000

Yeah, this supplements two textbook chapters with a multiple-choice reading comprehension quiz. Since I’m only on campus one day a week I have only fourteen chances over the course of the semester to actually interact with my students. Mostly I want to give them something interactive to do that bridges the gap until our next meeting.

By: camigp

camigp — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 19:25:26 +0000

Sorry to ask it, I come from a different academic background and I am neither familiar with how classes are in the USA nor am I a professor, but wouldn’t it be better to have students read about what you would cover in class? Isn’t promoting independent study habits an interest idea? Plus it would take you way less time.